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Dynamic selection

Dynamic selection lets gohide pick windows automatically by their title or window class, instead of ticking each app by hand. It's built for programs that spawn windows on the fly — File Explorer (a separate window per folder), a web browser, an image viewer that opens a window per image, anything that pops fresh windows while you work. Define a rule once and every matching window — now and in the future — is hidden the instant it appears.

Dynamic selection is a Pro feature.

How matching works

A rule matches windows in one of two ways:

  • Title contains — any window whose title contains your text (case-insensitive). Browser windows carry the browser name in their title bar, so Edge or Chrome hides every window of that browser; Down would catch a File Explorer window showing your Downloads folder. Don't include quotation marks.
  • Window class (exact) — any window whose class name equals one you list (case-insensitive). Use this to catch all of one app even when its titles differ — e.g. CabinetWClass for File Explorer, or Chrome_WidgetWin_1 for Chrome / Edge.

To match several things at once, separate them with a semicolon (;):

Edge;ACDSee;Photoshop
CabinetWClass;Chrome_WidgetWin_1

Create a rule

  1. Open Settings → Dynamic selection.
  2. Click Add title rule or Add class rule.
  3. Enter your patterns (semicolon-separated). The Test button shows how many open windows match right now — handy for checking a pattern isn't too broad.
  4. Optionally choose what happens while hidden — keep running, suspend the process, or mute it — and whether to hide the tray icon too. Assign a hotkey if you want to toggle the rule from anywhere.
  5. Save. The rule appears in the list with a Hide / Show toggle.

Hiding and showing

Press Hide on a rule (or its hotkey) to arm it. gohide hides every window that matches right now, and a live monitor keeps watching: any new window that matches — a browser pop-up, a freshly opened document — is hidden the moment it appears.

Press Show on that rule to release it: its windows come back and gohide stops auto-hiding them.

A rule that is hiding takes priority over everything else. While a dynamic rule is armed, its windows stay hidden even if you press Show all or the panic-restore hotkey. Only turning that specific rule off reveals them. This is deliberate — it lets you keep a class of windows permanently out of sight while still using show-all for everything else.

Auto-hide a startup program after every reboot (Pro)

A signature use of gohide Pro: some program launches itself at every Windows logon — a chat client, a download manager, a game or store launcher — and you'd rather it never appear. Dynamic selection can keep it hidden automatically, with no clicks after the first setup.

In the registered (Pro) edition your rules — and whether each one is currently hiding — are saved (encrypted, bound to your license). Turn on Start at logon (Settings → General) so gohide itself returns with Windows, elevated and with no UAC prompt. Then:

  1. Create a rule that matches the program (by title or class) and press Hide once.
  2. After every Windows (or gohide) restart, gohide comes back, re-applies the rule, and the program is hidden the moment its window appears — you never even see it flash.

It doesn't matter whether the program starts before or after gohide: gohide hides matching windows that are already open at startup, and keeps a live monitor running for windows that appear later, so either order is covered.

Tips

  • Substrings are powerful but broad — Down also matches "Download" or "Countdown". Use the Test count, or a more specific phrase, to avoid hiding more than you meant to.
  • Class matching is exact, so it never over-matches the way a title substring can. Use a tool like Spy++ or rely on the Test count to find the right class name.
  • gohide never matches Windows shell processes or itself, so system windows are safe.